Hello all, awhile back (2005) I decided to create my own campaign setting this was for the only system that I knew of back then which was D&D 3.5; It was called, Callirhoë, it was suppose to be a Psi-punk something I created my self. The premise is that Callirhoë a over-goddess decided to take over a plane of existence that was her father's. She colonized the plane by seeding Keys these keys if picked up would teleport the person from their world to Callirhoë. Eventually she made her presence known to all, yet she slowly weaned the world off. Time pasted and eventually the offspring forgot about the parent, she created natural disaster after one another. Eventually introducing Demons, Giants & Dragons. All which also forgot about the parent. Magic was destructive drawing it's energy from the Sun, and the Core of the planet. Eventually it caused an Ice Age in which ice sheets covered all the planet. This world was ruled by the Giants, which weren't very kind. The Giants had a very small population, and with that inbreeding happens, this caused the Giants to loose their hold. So to stop their species from completely dying out they bred with humans. However it was the Goblins to 1st use the power of the mind to stop the Giants.

This quickly caught on, and rebellions happened and it didn't stop in till every last pure blooded Giant was killed. Indeed that's what happened. What was truly amazing was from the ashes rose the Humans who've split thanks to natural selection into 3 species. Variags the Giant Blooded, Imperials (as they started to call themselves) the rulers of an ever growing empire, and Silures the most psionically gifted humans. With the ice sheets finally melting what survived was huge crystals that were underneath the crust that were finally surfaced. Out of these crystals a new global empire ran. As did technology fueled by these crystals. Then came the cleansing, the only users of Divine magic still left were the Dwarfs & their close allies the Orcs. They were faced with genocide in which they had no hope. Seeing the opportunity all Orcs gave up the existence of their goddess and joined the aggressors. In which they were cursed to never touch the ground. Dwarfs were eliminated just 100 years from the beginning of the campaign. The empire quickly turned into a Fascist regime, with even the simple thought of ill will towards the government can get you killed.

This is where the players appear, to survive in this harsh world they band together and search for their own destiny together.

Variag (+2) • Giant Strength: Variags have Giant in there blood but it's diluting. They start with D6 Strength instead of D4.
• Ice Blooded: Variags are born of ice & steel their Giant Blood protects them from the cold yet leaves them vulnerable to the heat. +4 bonus to resist the effects of Cold & -4 bonus to resist the effects of Heat
• Raiders: Variags are master raiders slipping in between even the most heavily guarding armada. Variags start with a free D6 in Boating, they take no prisoners Variags have a -4 bonus when dealing with other races than their own.
• Low Light Vision: Variags are use to living by starlight during long raids. No penalty for dim or dark lighting.

Gnomes (+2) • Healthy: Gnomes are very hardy they can bounce back very fast. Gnomes start with D6 Vigor instead of D4.
• Small: Gnomes are very little, averaging around 3' tall, better to get about places unnoticed. Their small size subtracts 1 from their Toughness, and has a Pace of 4" thanks to their small stature.
• Chatter Boxes: Gnomes talk alot, and never shut up, so it's no wonder they can't hear very well. Gnomes take a -2 bonus on notice rolls involving hearing.
• Little PIs: Gnomes are naturally curious and very social butterflies, watch out as you might find more than one gnome snooping around in your underwear drawer. Gnomes start out with +2 Cha, and a free D6 in Persuasion & Investigate.

Halflings (+2)• Unsavory Bite: Halflings developed over sized jaw muscles to help chew even the toughest materials. Halflings have a Natural attack of Str+d6. In addition Halflings have a poisonous bite much like a Gila Monster. Halflings have a dangerous bite and victims that suffer a shaken in result of the natural weapon must make a Vigor roll or be paralyzed for 2d6 rounds.
• Small: Halflings are no bigger than Gnomes. Their small size subtracts 1 from their Toughness, and has a Pace of 5" thanks to their small stature.
• Iron Cast Stomach: Halflings live in environments just right for deadly diseases & poisons, yet they aren't affected. Halflings are immune to disease & poison.
• Primitive: All Halflings have the All Thumbs Hinderance.
• Thermal Vision: Halflings have developed heat pits under their eyes much like Vipers. Halve darkness penalties against heat producing targets.

Orcs (+2) • Agile: Orcs are naturally nimble. Orcs start with D6 in Agi instead of D4.
• Cursed: Orcs were once allies to the Dwarfs, but betrayed them when Dwarfs needed them the most, the Goddess cursed them for their betrayal. Orcs start with the Racial Power of Fly and 5pp that charges at 1pp/hour just for this power, you can't use these 5pp for anything else but this power.
• Unsavory: Orc begin play with the Hindrance: Habit (Alcohol) [major]. As well the Hindrances: Stubborn & Ugly.

Elves (+2) • Silicon Life form: Elves are silicon based instead of carbon based. Elves start with D6 Smarts instead of D4. They are vulnerable to sonic attacks more so than carbon based lifeforms. Elves take double damage from sonic attacks and –4 to resist sonic attacks.
• Tough: Elves have crystals for skin. Elves start with +1 Toughness, and start play with free d6 in Guts skill.
• Infravision: Elves can naturally sense the heat given off living creatures. Half Darkness penalty against heat producing targets.

Imperials (+2)
• Versatile: Imperials are vary vastly from one each other. Imperials have one extra point to put into any attribute of their choice.
• Upper Class: Imperials start with the Noble edge for free, along with the hindrances Arrogant & Overconfident.
• Commanding Presence: Imperials start with the Command Edge for free.

Silures (+2)• Psionics: The entire Silures race possesses psionic powers. Every Silures begins the game with Arcane Background (Psionics) and a d6 in the Psionics skill.
• Mentalist: Silures are masters of their own power. They gain the Mentalist edge without meeting the minimal requirements. They also gain extra 5pp.
• Mind Over Body: Silures put their mind over their own body. Vigor attribute requires two points per step to raise during character generation. The character must dedicate two leveling opportunities to raising the attribute during game play.
• Poverty: Material goods are no interest to Silures, and they begin with the Poverty Hindrance.

$=rm (Republic Marks). Each character gets 500rm at character start, except for Imperials that get 1500rm.

Heres some the common elements of my world.

- Slavery is legal & common. Slaves may sell at max of 200rm, and min of 10rm.
- Thought police are everywhere, so guard your thoughts well.
- Halflings have been on permanent Open Season, and one Halfling head can sold for 3rm. However this law has been forgotten by most.
- No Arcane Background (Magic) or (Miracles).

Last edited by Many The Ravaged on Sun Mar 29, 2009 8:44 pm; edited 5 times in total

Orcs are levitating?
Shouldn't the Variag have Size+1 or something to reflect their relationship with giants?

Looks interesting though,

Magnus

PS: Why do some of the "standard" fantasy races have strange names (Twercs and Thyres) while Halflings, gnomes and orcs do not?

Ran out of strange names to call them, lol. As for the Variag I couldn't balance them with size +1 so I decided to have them medium size but extra strong. However seriously I did ran out of strange names, I actually split the Elves originally into 3 sub-species, all with different names. However Savaged they were all so close I put them all together. You've should've seen my map, all German names for the continents, French for the bodies of water, German/French for cities.

As now, I'll see if I can't get an map of Earth several million years ago when there were fewer continents I'll use that map as my base. I'm too lazy to get a new one, lol.

Orc are levitating because they were cursed by the Goddess. I guess never knowing the comforts of the ground is kinda of a curse. Never truly flying, never truly walking.

I think you should decide whether to have "strange names" for all the races or keep the fantasy ones. If I use fantasy creatures in my worlds I usually keep their names if they have "standard" properties and roles (i.e. Dwarves are greedy, elves fight with bows, halflings eat all the time, etc) but I change their names if they are just frames that I've used to build the races for the world (i.e. Dwarves that are nature loving hippies, elves that drink blood and speak with a scottish accent, halflings are masters of the arcane arts, etc). Just my 2 cents.

I think you should decide whether to have "strange names" for all the races or keep the fantasy ones. If I use fantasy creatures in my worlds I usually keep their names if they have "standard" properties and roles (i.e. Dwarves are greedy, elves fight with bows, halflings eat all the time, etc) but I change their names if they are just frames that I've used to build the races for the world (i.e. Dwarves that are nature loving hippies, elves that drink blood and speak with a scottish accent, halflings are masters of the arcane arts, etc). Just my 2 cents.

Magnus

Thanks I'll take back the silly names for all except for Humans, it does get weird when you have odd names that you have to spell out & say over & over.